Sick Day on the Night Shift
by Fan Of Games
Summary: Alela Grora has never taken a sick day since she's never been ill; though now she's sick and is forcing herself to work a night shift. Refusing to rest, Grora must deal with her work and the hallucinations conjured from a lack of sleep and her fever.


"I keep telling you, Head Angel, I'm fine! There's no need to be concerned for my work!" An annoyed Alela Grora retorted, cocking her head to the side and putting both hands to her hips. Her posture showed that she was clearly unhappy with the decision Wodahs made for her, claiming she was not in any condition to do the night shift despite the constant rebuttals that said otherwise coming from the angel with a hundred and one degree fever. That angel, being Grora, felt that it was an insult to her since it was coming from none other than the Head Angel himself. Although a small part inside of her—a _very_ small part of her—somewhat believed that Wodahs was merely concerned for her health, the vast majority of her being outright denied it.

Wodahs merely closed his eyes and sighed, face palming himself because the particular angel he was dealing with belligerently refused to stand down, probably because her pride was coming under fire which Grora apparently considered to be one of the greatest attacks against her. Besides Ater of course, considering that one of the two demons under his brother was responsible for the loss of her eye—and no matter how much Ater apologized even while accepting the abuse she received from Grora on a daily basis, the stubborn angel refused to accept her apologies. He did need to have another talk with Lady Etihw about that since forgiveness was something the angels, and even the demons who also lived in the Grey Garden, emphasized as a common rule of their friendships with each other. Grora was clearly not the best example of that.

"I beg to differ," he finally spoke up after a few moments of silence following that face palm. "You have been ill since yesterday and have not taken a couple of sick days to recover. I've spoken with you about this several times by now, yet you keep insisting that you do not need to rest. What will you do when you finally crumble under the weight of your own illness?"

Grora puffed out her chest and shut her remaining eye, crossing both arms across her chest. "Blah, blah, blah. You don't need to work for some time because you're sick! Take days off!" She stuck her tongue out at Wodahs, acting like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum while using a surly tone of voice as she deliberately mocked the Head Angel. "Yeah, right! As if I need time off from work to rest and make a full recovery! I've had a perfect attendance on the job for my entire career, Head Angel! _My entire career!_ I've never been sick before! _Never!_" Grora emphasized that last bit while jutting a rude finger straight into Wodahs' face, grabbing the collar of his suit with her other hand as her eye opened. "Do you know what that even means?! What that means to me?!"

Wodahs sighed again, taking her arm to release himself from her grip. "That you would much rather risk your own health at the expense of your life all for the sake of keeping that perfect attendance of yours so you can receive a promotion?" he inquired coldly, apparently beginning to get fed up with a conversation going absolutely nowhere. Wodahs was considering walking away and informing Lady Etihw and Lord Kcalb about Grora's demeanor, though he was aware that simply leaving could agitate her further by implying that he didn't care about her. It was the wrong message to send even though he truly did care despite not showing it, but he didn't want her to unintentionally misread the gesture and come to the wrong conclusion.

The sick angel was momentarily caught off guard by his question and had to think about how to answer. She put a finger to her chin and considered what he said before immediately smiling as she finally responded. "Yeah, that! The sooner I get promoted, the closer I get to you!"

"Weren't you already too close to me just now?" asked a puzzled Wodahs, not sure he was understanding her correctly. She did have a habit of being somewhat vague in her responses. "And what about Ivlis' invasion? Does that too not fit the criteria for wanting to take time off and rest?"

"Ha!" Grora sneered as she blew him off. "Semantics, schematics!" That was an odd word to finish that brief exclamation. "You wish, Head Angel. I meant your job." She smirked, pointing another finger at him to answer another question Wodahs didn't even need to put forward. "That's right, when I advance further up the ladder I'll be taking over your position! Soon I'll be running things around here in your shoes and there's nothing you can do about it because it will be official. Besides, that jerk attacking the Grey Garden doesn't count; everyone suffered and was wounded like we were. Just because an outsider assaults us to steal power by seizing it doesn't mean it can be included in whatever nonsense criteria you're spouting."

Wodahs crossed his arms and nodded to demonstrate that he now comprehended where his coworker was coming from. "I do not doubt your ambitious dreams of ascension in the castle and they are quite understandable, and while you may have the capability to handle the work I do, not once have you demonstrated concrete professionalism in your field; and you tried to kill Ater on a number of occasions, more than I can count."

"She deserves it!"

Wodahs continued, disregarding that outburst from Grora. "You've not proven that you are a quality candidate for the position, so my brother and Lady Etihw did not considered you for a promotion to a better placement. There are others who have demonstrated certain values and core ideals that make up the foundation on which Blancblack Castle and the Grey Garden are founded upon. While you have shown and demonstrated some of these values, others are sorely lacking to a point that a possible promotion is out of the question for the time being."

He did not need to finish since Grora was now in a sour mood as seen by her fuming facial expression and angry body language. Wodahs could tell that she was almost going to punch him. _Almost._ However, he wanted to at least make sure he was understood even though the other angel wasn't happy to hear him insult her workforce ethics even though his comments were true. Though Grora did not see it that way; she believed he was belittling her.

"Do I make myself clear?"

Wodahs narrowly avoided that punch Grora threw at him. He was expecting it and didn't even try to dodge out of the way because the attack missed completely, not fazing him at all. Grora swung at him, but she felt unsteady on her feet as she launched her arm at Wodahs to sock his lights out. It was to be expected since she was sick, but Grora was startled when she suddenly lost her balance as she whipped around and tried to grab onto something for support. She attempted to regain her balance, but fell hard on her back with a loud groan of pain.

"See what I meant when I said you were sick?" the Head Angel inquired as Grora opened her eyes to find the room spinning around her as she struggled to get into a sitting position, uttering small gasps of pain. Sweat trickled down her slightly red, feverish face, while her breathing was heavy since Grora ended up knocking the wind right out of herself. Wodahs offered a hand to help her up, but she arrogantly slapped it away out of anger, enraged at the thought of him pitying her.

"I can get up on my own! I can handle myself!" she shouted, struggling to stand up and still breathing heavily while she wobbled slightly. "You don't have to be so patronizing!"

Wodahs shrugged. "Suit yourself. Now will you start taking better care of yourself?"

"Piss off and go to Hell!" she retorted and stormed off to a nearby office to sign up for the night shift, apparently not going to consider his advice any longer.

"Suit yourself," Wodahs repeated unemotionally as a couple of demons from one of the lower administration offices came up to speak with him about a current project their department was working on. Their manager required his permission and sent them to Wodahs to request it. He consented to it after hearing the details, somewhat wishing Grora would reconsider signing up to do the night shift. It was already clear she had a fever that could get worse, so hopefully she gave it some more thought and took a few days off to recover. Then again, it was Alela Grora.

…

"Stupid Head Angel…" Grora muttered under her breath as she sat in a comfortable chair she had brought down to the reception area, slouching down in it to get more comfy while taking a sip of some hot coffee. In the end she completely ignored Wodahs' concerns and took the night shift, forcefully since the attendant demon determining who handled assignments in Blancblack Castle shared the Head Angel's perspective and tried unsuccessfully to persuade her not to sign up for the night shift, especially since nobody else did on this particular night. Had there been anyone else, she would've assigned about one or two other employees to Grora's station at reception. It was a somewhat difficult week since there was a holiday festival to celebrate Easter the previous weekend, so everyone in the castle was catching up on work they were allowed to place aside prior to having fun, meaning that they were allowed to skip at least a few night shifts to get more sleep.

Although Grora agreed that sleep was necessary, she was a punctual employee who chose to get her work done first before she went to bed—unless she was trying to slaughter Ater, which actually detracted from her work and potentially risked souring peaceful relations with the demons. It was bad enough that Ater worked in the same department, though abandoning her duties to hurt Ater was also just as bad; not to Grora since she felt it was only fair she got even and then some. But alas, she wasn't allowed to go that far, or even try for that matter. After the last incident when she shoved Ater's head into a microwave and proceeded to beat her with a frying pan while turning the microwave on to the highest temperature, Lady Etihw was enraged and threatened to not only fire Grora, but also exile her from the Grey Garden unless she started behaving better. She didn't have to forgive Ater, nor did she have to like working alongside her, but she was forbidden from harming the poor girl. That attack really traumatized Ater quite a lot, forcing her into hiding for a long period of time until Lord Kcalb finally managed to calm her down.

Grora sighed, finishing the last bit of her coffee as she started heating up another pot with the coffeemaker from the kitchen. "Stupid Ater…Stupid Head Angel…Why do they get praise for being good employees and I don't?" she inquired to herself, annoyed that they seemed to be better workers in the eyes of others without considering her own actions. She closed her eyes and sighed again, opening them slowly and feeling slightly woozy as her vision blurred somewhat. Grora placed a hand to her forehead, noting the warm feeling coming through to the palm of her hand in addition to some sweat. Her fever was likely getting worse as Wodahs seemed to believe, yet Grora shook her head to try and focus. She was not going to admit to something she felt was false even though others could clearly see the truth in it. She would not stand down because of a simple fever.

"Bah…" Grora scoffed, heading over to a nearby security room to check the camera feed, "those two really get on my nerves." The Grey Garden was a peaceful place that had never once experienced any problems, but Ivlis' attack the previous year exposed this place to other worlds, regions that could take advantage of that peace to attack the Grey Garden and destroy everything Lady Etihw and Lord Kcalb created. That was why regular patrols were established to ensure that no threats ever crossed the borders or attacked from long range beyond them, and security cameras were installed at key points throughout the castle and the village to keep a watch on things.

A few locks of hair dangled in front of her eyes and Grora brushed them away as she watched the footage. Nothing was out of place, everything was fine. She sighed, bored out of her mind since nobody else was handling the night shift with her. "Jeez, does the whole damn workforce have to be lazy when they get allowed to?" she asked as she stepped out of the room, "Not that they get any work done around here, but it would at least be nice if they...came by often?"

Her voice started to die down in her throat when she saw him, or least his shadow, down at the end of one of the corridors heading into an office. "Head Angel?" she called out to him, her vision slightly blurring as Grora took a step forward and staggered, feeling her forehead as she steadied herself. Her breathing grew heavier, the sweat trickling down her face as it dripped onto the floor. She slowly walked back to her comfortable chair, stopping by a nearby closet to take out a fan so she could plug it into an outlet by the chair and turn it on. She figured Wodahs had just come down to get something, forgetting that he would have had to walk by her on his way there to find whatever he was looking for. He could have stopped to say hello, but apparently it seemed to be beneath him because he felt superior to her—at least that was her perspective of his attitude.

Grora sat down again and pressed the power button on the radio, letting the sound of music wash over her as she poured more coffee. A book she was reading with the aid of some light from a lamp was open, a bookmark marking the page she was currently on now. Yet Grora didn't feel like reading anymore, at least for the moment. Her sight didn't seem to be clearing up for the time being, so she closed the book and put it aside before putting her head back against a fluffy pillow which she had also brought down to stay comfy. Grora sighed. "Oh, why is it that I hardly get any help whenever I'm on the night shift?" she inquired to herself, her voice wavering as the headache that came with her intensifying fever put more pressure on her.

She turned her head to the office Wodahs entered and watched it for a short while, from 12: 38 a.m. to 1:57: a.m. for whatever odd reason. He was in there for quite an awfully long time, much longer than it took on average to get anything from there. And it was awfully quiet. What was the Head Angel doing in there? Did he actually sign up for the night shift too?

No, he couldn't have. She was informed that she was the only one working tonight.

"Head Angel?!" she called from her chair, making sure she was quiet enough not to wake other workers who lived on the floor above. "Head Angel, are you going to answer me or not?" When she received no response from Wodahs after a few moments of silence aside from the radio, Grora let out an irritated sigh and stood up, shaking somewhat as she held the chair to keep herself steady so she didn't fall like before when she tried to punch Wodahs. Perhaps he was angry about that in some way, though not as angry as she was when he suggested she rested instead of working a night shift to improve her perfect attendance. When she felt fine enough to walk, Grora stormed over to the office and opened the door to go inside.

"Hey, Head Angel, next time you want to ignore me, just—Head Angel?"

Nobody was there. The office was completely empty. There was no other way out. Grora was positively sure he came in here. She saw his shadow before.

Unsure if it was some kind of prank of not, Grora returned to the security feed at the cameras to see when Wodahs entered the office. She played back to footage to when she first saw him and just watched, keeping a close eye on the particular office she saw the Head Angel walk into before. Her attention was right on that specific area…yet nobody was even there aside from herself just talking to empty space as if he really was there.

Grora quickly returned to the office and again saw nothing. She rubbed her eyes and did a double take, but still nothing. It was as if he was never there. Why didn't the camera see him?

"What the hell…" she murmured to herself, feeling unsteady as she leaned against the right side of the doorframe so she wouldn't fall over. Her fever was obviously getting worse to the point where even she would've believed a far better choice was to have rested instead of doing the night shift. Yet Grora had already come too far into the night to give in to her fever just yet. She still had her comfy chair with the comfy pillow, and the radio could just be turned off for a while so she could have a few hours of silence. The fan could still be kept on to cool her down, though the droning noise it created would likely make the headache brought on by her fever worse.

She sighed, staggering back to the chair as best she could without falling. "You win once again, Head Angel…" she scoffed in a bitter tone of defeat directed more at herself than Wodahs. "Congratulations…you were right again as usual," Grora said, having reached the chair so she could slump down in it before drinking the rest of the coffee.

However, her eyelids were beginning to feel very heavy, especially because she had a fever. Grora did her best as she struggled to keep them open, pouring another cup of coffee to keep herself awake in the fight to stay alert for trouble. All the while she debated whether she really did see the Head Angel or not, possibly wondering if it was just a mere hallucination caused by a combination of her fever and a lack of sleep. Grora chuckled in spite of herself at the thought of becoming quite an insomniac, a satirized joke aimed at her job which might've been responsible. "Yeah, right…" she said softly to shirk the blame off her, "as if I of all people would be afflicted with insomnia."

A sudden black drop snapped her to attention as she looked at her coffee to see if whatever it was landed in it. Yet her coffee was completely still in the light coming from the lamp. Although Grora paid no close attention to it at first, she felt her eyes caught a momentarily brief glimpse of red. Grora then looked up at the ceiling to find nothing there just like in the office. Whether or not it actually confirmed any suspicions she had, Grora felt the red drop she just saw…was blood. Her sweat continued to trickle down her face as she grabbed the lamp with a shaky hand and aimed the light up at the ceiling. It wasn't that she was scared of anything, but the eerie feeling of being alone on the night shift while having a high fever unnerved her to some extent. Fortunately, no sign of blood was found leaking through the ceiling, so Grora debunked it as a possible hallucination.

Perhaps it was her feverish mind's way of telling her to get some rest.

Either way, the occurrence made Grora shudder slightly. She took another look at her coffee and quickly got up from her chair. She rushed into the nearby bathroom to pour the coffee down the sink and she threw the cup out too for good measure. This activity was not only for her own safety since she didn't want to risk drinking anything that got blood in it, but it also made her feel a lot warmer as Grora felt her fever was getting somewhat higher. What she just did was the equivalent of swinging a double edged sword to attack an opponent while damaging herself as well because that was always the case with double edged swords. It might not have caused any injury or death to her person, but it made her head hurt more even as she tried to comprehend the vivid hallucinations she seemed to be having under the influence of a fever.

Grora's vision blurred again as she began to feel very dizzy and lightheaded on her feet. She stumbled backwards against the wall of one of the stalls in the bathroom as she was leaving and winced in pain while moaning softly. "Oww…that really hurt…" she said to herself. _"Maybe I really should have requested sick days,"_ she then thought on the way back to her chair. Yet the walk back, despite being only several steps away, was excruciating due to the high fever. Her gait was completely unsteady as Grora stumbled to the chair and fell forward against it, catching the arms of the chair and struggling to seat herself.

Grora put a hand to her forehead to feel her temperature. She was quite hot, and her hand got sticky from all the sweat pouring down her face which had begun to turn very red. The debate over whether to keep the radio on or turn it off ended in the latter, so Grora shut it off to get some rest. Unfortunately, the constant droning of the fan still kept her wide awake in addition to the coffee Grora already drank. It had been what—her third cup so far. No, wait, her fourth? Fifth?

She didn't know anymore. Her head hurt too much. Suddenly all that thinking about how much coffee she had made Grora want to use the restroom, so she did after going back there again.

And when she came back out, staggering unsteadily as she nearly fell onto the floor face first, she watched as Ater's shadow went down the same corridor Wodahs' alleged shadow was in before. Only this time it went further down into another hallway. Maybe it was Ater, or maybe it was a hallucination like before. Honestly, Grora didn't even have enough energy to shrug. This night shift was taking a heavy toll on her health, but Grora still had to investigate. She was on duty after all, even with a high fever despite not knowing what exactly her temperature was because she didn't have a thermometer with her at the moment.

"Ater!" Grora called out weakly, staggering to the hallway while leaning against the wall for much needed support to keep herself from falling. Checking the security footage would have made the trip easier and a lot shorter so she didn't have to go. Yet Grora didn't think of it; she just kept following Ater's shadow as best she could even though it was likely long gone.

First Wodahs' shadow, and now Ater's. Were they messing with Grora, or were the two of them just hallucinations on this particular night?

"Ater, is that you?! Are you…" she stopped to catch her breath at the door, having finally made it that far after what seemed like an eternity. "Are you there, Ater?!" she called again while opening the door and stepping through the threshold to find the shadow entering another office.

Grora staggered to the office and opened the door, again finding nobody there. Though she screamed upon turning around to find a bloody Ater with no lower jaw standing right in her face.

…

"Ater!"

"Hm? Is something the matter, Miss Grora?"

Grora looked around the room after her momentary daze to find that she was no longer in the office where she last saw Ater—who looked perfectly fine now with her lower jaw as she and Arbus stood by the feverish angel's bedside and looked at her in confusion—but was, in fact, in her bedroom lying in bed. An icepack had fallen from her head which Arbus put back, confusing Grora momentarily because she didn't remember a thing until she realized she still had a fever. Perhaps that really did explain those strange occurrences as hallucinations.

She sighed before eyeing the two cat demons suspiciously, especially Ater who she thought had a hand in whatever happened to her in the early hours of the morning. "Where am I?" Grora inquired despite already knowing exactly where she was, but she just wanted to confirm that it was not some kind of trick. The hallucinations were her reason for checking to see if this wasn't another hallucination or some kind of dream, so she hoped to debunk either of those ideas or any tricks.

Arbus merely giggled as she gently pushed Grora back against the headboard. "Where do you think you are, silly?" she asked, annoying the sick angel in bed with her cheerful demeanor.

"I know that, you dolt!" Grora retorted coldly and then sighed in frustration. "Just answer the question, okay? I want to know if this isn't some kind of dream or something."

"You are in your room," Ater responded, still somewhat confused, but understood where the angel was coming from. "You are in bed with a high fever."

"Gee, thanks…" Grora muttered bitterly under her breath even though the cat demons still heard her while she prepared her next question. "Now tell me: what exactly happened to me? Don't repeat that I have a fever; I'm perfectly aware of that by now. I want to know what happened since very early this morning. I should have finished the night shift already."

"You did not finish the night shift," Ater said as-a-matter-of-factly with a blank look on her face. Grora wasn't sure whether she should hit her for that, though she didn't even have the energy to do so. Her fever, which she now fully acknowledged, sapped what little strength she had left, so she was not in any condition to really do much of anything.

"Yeah," Arbus agreed, "we found you collapsed on the floor in one of the offices and saw that you had lost consciousness. The security footage from last night verified that."

Okay, so she likely did have hallucinations of Wodahs, Ater, and the blood. No tricks.

"And how did I get here?" Grora replied with one final question as she then looked at the grey pajamas she was currently attired in.

Ater took notice of this and began the next bit of their explanation. "You regained a bit of consciousness after we found you, but you were still groggy as we helped you back up here. You insisted on taking care of yourself at that point, so we prepared your bed and breakfast while you showered and changed," she said while placing a tray with a plate of waffles covered in syrup, a fork, and a knife on Grora's lap as Arbus put a cup of tea on the nightstand.

"I imagine that must have been difficult on your part, Miss Grora," she said rhetorically.

"This is not poisoned, right, Ater?" Grora accused, glaring at her sworn enemy.

Arbus shook her head. "No, of course not. Geez, must you hold a grudge over everything? How many times has Ater apologized and done nice things for you to make up for what happened?"

"Not enough!" Grora shouted at the cat demon in response. "I refuse to accept anything from you other than my precious eye, which you stole from me, by the way!" She pointed a harsh finger at Ater as she yelled, nearly knocking the tray off the bed.

Ater merely looked down at the floor in shame as she fiddled with her fingers sadly. Arbus was about to retort back, but was stopped by the voice of someone else coming in.

"Have you completely forgotten that it was an accident, or will you continue to cling onto the misguided belief that Ater did it on purpose?"

Grora frowned as Wodahs entered her room, upset at receiving another lecture from him. "Head Angel…" her voice was cold and bitter as she rudely addressed him. "Who the hell invited you here? As I recall, I once told you to _never_ come into _my_ room."

"Yes, I am aware of that," he responded while motioning for Ater and Arbus to leave. "You both can go now. Return to your duties for now, but don't forget to check up on her every once in a while," he told them as the two cat demons left the room before he turned back to Grora. "Now, while I am here to check up on you, my brother also requested that I come. He asked me to inform you that he hopes you feel better so you can get back to work."

"Gee, that's so sweet of him," Grora replied in a slightly bitter tone. "Couldn't he have just come himself instead of sending you to do a lackey's work? And why isn't Lady Etihw worried?"

"Lady Etihw is, as I'm sure you might be aware considering how you are familiar with her behavior around this time, sleeping in. She is not aware of how bad your fever has become, though she still does send her hopes for you to get better as well. My brother is currently busying himself with work. Unlike Lady Etihw, he always handles work professionally and stays up to date on current tasks. It's a shame she does not share his sense of duty and workforce ethics."

He was right, Grora couldn't argue with that since the Head Angel did have a valid point. She sighed in defeat as she picked up the fork and knife to begin cutting the waffles. "Fine…you win, Head Angel. There goes my perfect attendance, just as you may have predicted."

"This isn't about winning or your perfect attendance," Wodahs said, his voice calm as he held out a thermometer to her. "It's about you getting well enough to return to work. Now, open up and put this in before you start eating. I would like to check your temperature."

Grora did as she was told without saying a word as she put the thermometer in her mouth. Wodahs pulled it out a few moments later and said, "one hundred and four degrees…you nearly have heatstroke." He turned around as he left the room. "Just stay in bed for the next several days and rest. You need to recover fully so you can resume your duties again."

Grora sighed as she put her head back and looked up at the ceiling. "Yes, Head Angel."

It was humiliating, but perhaps it was the smarter thing to do. A fever, regardless of how bad it was, would not stop her from getting back to work. When she was well again, she would be back to normal and on the path to surpassing him—or at least catching up to him.

…

** Well, that's about it for my very first Grey Garden fanfic. To be honest, I have not played the game or watched a full playthrough of it on YouTube. I was only able to watch some parts of it, but I've got a pretty good idea of the general plot elements; though I will watch more videos of the Grey Garden so I can see the full playthrough. Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading this as I enjoyed writing it.**

** Disclaimer: I don't own the Grey Garden; it's owned by Mogeko.**


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